Oconto County WIGenWeb ProjectCollected
and posted by RITAThis
site
is exclusively for the FREE access of individual researchers.* No
profit
may be made by any person, business or organization through
publication,
reproduction, presentation or links to this site.SURING SCHOOL DISTRICT LOCAL
HISTORY1979Page 5To
Page 6

.EARLY
SURING SETTLERS AND BUSINESSESWith
the coming of the railroad,
Suring boomed and homes and business places went up. .1896Anton
Arveson, father of Arlene
McDermid, stocked the vacant store building and ran it as a general
store.Suring's
first hotel was built
by Abe Fredenberg, a Menominee Indian. This building is now the popular
"Boarding House Supper Club."August
Giese built a hardware
store, which is now the Union Hardware Company.John
Dieck built the present
Lasch tavern, calling it the Assembly. He sold the place to Chris
Daniels
in 1900.Arthur
Cato, Suring's photographer,
arrived in the spring. He lived at the foot of Suring Hill. This house
was recently moved to Hayes and is the home of Curtis Strehlow. Mr.
Cato's
greatest source of income came from photographing the scenes in and
around
the lumber camps but he did engage in the portrait line, as is evident
when anyone looks at an old photo of the early settlers. His son, W.A.
Cato was a mason and placed the first concrete side walks in the
village.Simon
Wandel, Suring's first
blacksmith, had a shop on Main Street about where the present Stengel
store
warehouse now stands.1897Henry
Johnson of Hayes and Louis
Rollman established the first warehatfse and grain elevator along the
track.Michael
Groninger and family
arrived from Cecil area and built a large hotel. (The Opera House was
not
added until 1909.) This building is owned by John Berg now.Anton
Arveson erected a larger
store building which also housed Suring's first post office. This
building
is owned by Ed Fercy at the present time.Issac
Serier, Suring's first
depot agent, arrived in town. He and his wife had to rent rooms in the
Groninger Hotel until suitable housing could be found.1898The
present Pape Meat Market
was built by. Home and Greene. Later that same year, Julius Hann bought
the butcher shop and enlarged it.Herman
Groninger, son of Mike
Groninger. distinguished himself as being the first village barber when
he set up a chair in the bar room of the hotel where he shaved his
customers
and cut their hair.Christ
Nelson, formerly of Logan,
opened a new shoe store near Anton Arveson's store.William
Meles opened a livery
stable.1899Harry
Serier purchased two lots
and built a store and a home. In March of 1940, this store building was
sold to Earl Whiting. It is now operated by Morris Whiting and George
Schenk.ABOUT
THE TURN OF THE CENTURYHerschel
Cooley had a small
building on the corner now occupied by the Suring State Bank. He sold
clothing,
boots, hats and canes.Levi
Scott's livery stable stood
behind the present Ehlinger garage.Frank
Stackpole erected the
present Home Town Restaurant. One part of the building was used as his
barbershop and the larger part served as a general store.Many
of the homes and business
places in the area were built by the team of James Alien and G. W.
Krueger
at this time.O.A.
Raisler had a furniture
store and a hardware business on the present Farmer Store site.1900William
Zingler purchased the
Cooley buildin site) and opened up a furniture store.John
Dieck purchased the hardware
stock and building of O.A. Raisler and established himself as Suring's
Hardware man, remaining in this line of business until 1917. The
building
is still standing today, but had been moved and is part of the Detert
building.J.J.
Johnson opened 'The Klondike
Saloon".The
present Wickman tavern was
built by Abe Fredenberg, and it was named "The Atheran Hotel".1901W.J.
Thielke came to the village
and set up a general merchantile business in the Frank Stackpole
building.Jimmy
Johnson and Nels Nelson
erected a large building, two stories high, near the site of the
present
Farmer's Store. The upstairs of the building was known as Liberty Hall.
The ground floor space was rented out to different businessmen.1902Miss
Clara Gerndt started a
millinery business in the present Bob Henkel home, next door to Bob's
Mobil.The
Suring Elevator was built
by Public Subscription and was considered another step toward making
Suring
a great agricultural center.1904John
U. Johnson and Anton Jorgenson
erected a farm machinery store just west of August Giese's Hardware
Store.
Along with farm implements, they also fixed harnesses. These two
buildings
were later combined and is now the Union Hardware store.Frank
Stackpole, Suring's barber,
built a brick home for his family behind his place of business.
Clifford
Suring owns the house today.R.F.
Zuehlke came to Suring
from Hayes and built a saloon on Main Street. The former Zuehlke
business
is "Dick and Toni's" today.H.P.
Sorenson started a blacksmith
business. His shop was located on the present Ehlinger Garage car lot.
The building was torn down in 1945 and a bowling alley was erected on
the
site, which has since burned.The
Methodist church was built,
and also the Suring School.H.B.
Smith of Oconto Falls erected
a barbershop on the east side of Harry Sener's warehouse. Smith stayed
only briefly and sold the building to Frank Scott who converted it into
a jewelry store. The building is still standing out at the Walter
Mittag
farm.1904The
Suring Hospital was built
by Dr. Jules Conard. 1905-1910The
year of 1905 brought the
Wisconsin Pail Company to Suring. Later, in 1907, a box factory set up
shop in the building and manufactured cheese boxes,The
Gus Abrams family moved
to Suring in 1906 and opened a restaurant on Main Street. Levi Scott
later
owned the business and in 1910, Dr. Dougherty moved in.A.
Dionne of Lena came to Suring
in 1907 and made pickle contracts with the many farmers in the area.
Allert
and McGuire erected a pickle factory along the railroad side track in
1908.In
1909 E.F. Buss converted
the Johnson and Jorgenson store into a general store. The store was in
the Buss family until 1952, when it became part of Union Hardware.On
January 30. 1908, six buildings
on the south side of Suring's Main Street were destroyed by fire.A
telephone exchange building
was erected in the fall of 1908. It is now Jim's Barber Shop.The
present Stengel Store and
its warehouse were both built in 1908. The warehouse was built by Levi
Scott who operated a small general store business. He sold it to his
son-in-iaw.
R.M. Stengel in 1913. The present Stengel store was built by Nels
Nelson.